Dancing with lassitude: a dramaturgy from limbo

Abstract

To perform from a state of lassitude is to reside on the edge of action. Like the limbo, the dance of lassitude is a negotiation between confinement and mobility. But edges, middle spaces and absences can be undesirable, stigmatised terrain in performance: the prompter hides the absence of speech whilst cloaked by the proscenium wings, the walk-on players go unpaid, and the in-action of the unemployed actor is euphemised as ‘resting’. This paper attempts to uncloak the stigma of the unseen and explores places where resting, slowness and anchorage can provide possibilities for a disability dramaturgy, which pushes beyond a desire for access into mainstream intelligibilities.

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Notes on contributors

Alicia Grace

Alicia Grace is currently working with Kaleido Arts as a dramaturg to curate a Disability Performance network for the South West region. She has worked as a disability equality trainer and lecturer in contextual performance practice. In 2009 she will complete a masters degree in Arts and Ecology at Dartington College of Arts